Jamaica Mule

 

I think I've just covered all of the Jamaica-themed cocktail out there. I'm returning to this old stand by that I've made in the past to try it with fresh ingredients (I've been squeezing the pineapple juice along with the citrus) and a lovely ginger beer. Fentiman's is a spicy botanical ginger beer that tastes not only fresh but barreled and oaky. 

The cocktail departs from the standard Mule by being so large that it requires a Collins glass, but not crushed ice. There's a lot of booze in it too--between the 151-proof rum and the full measures of light and dark rum, you may want to wait a bit before having another one. 

• 1 1/2 oz. light Jamaican rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. dark Jamaican rum (Pusser's navy rum used)
• 1/2 oz. 151-proof rum (Cruzan 151 used)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• ginger beer (Fentiman's used)
  
• pineapple stick
• piece of preserved ginger

Combine rums and juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a Chilled collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with ginger beer and stir gently. Garnish with pineapple stick and preserved ginger.

Marie Galante

 

Marie Galante is not a person, its a place. A small Island in the French Caribbean that cultivates sugar and is famous for a chateau and windmills that used to operate on the estate. 

While this is a rum and grapefruit cocktail, it is  La Grande Passion that sets it apart from other drinks of similar design. It is at once exotic and very French. I like how elegant this cocktail is; it has a way of being unexpectedly bright and otherworldly in its look and flavor, as quality French spirits have a tendency to be. 

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1/8 grapefruit slice optional

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with grapefruit slice if using fresh grapefruit.

Cannes-Cannes

This cocktail has a fun name, a pun on Cannes, France and the famous bawdy cabaret dance of Paris. I liked that it was a balanced and strong cocktail (the two seldom go hand in hand) with a double punch of rum and gin. Because the recipe specified light rum, meaning that there should be little barrel taste in the drink, I opted for Plantation's 3-Stars blend, though that is a pretty flavorful light rum. Then I was struggling with which gin to use for the second measure.

Old Tom sounded appropriate, but it would have been lost in all that grapefruit. So would a simple London dry style gin (although this is perfectly acceptable if that is what you have on hand.) Doing the smell test on several bottles, I arrived at my homemade dry gin. This steeped gin had the right piney and tannin notes to stand out past all of that juice. The combination was lovely and made this the best cocktail I had that day.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Star used)
  1 1'/2 oz. dry gin (homemade bathtub gin used)
• 3 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. Cointreau (triple sec used)
• orange slice

Combine all ingredients except orange slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice and garnish with orange slice. 

Cat Cay

 

I have to say that this cocktail doesn't scream Bahamas to me. It rather fits into a classic cocktail profile that really mimics French cafe drinking from more than a century ago. French liqueurs like Grand Marnier and Royal Combier (which I used instead) appeared in the early 20th century with new advances in distilling and preserving the flavors of fruits and spices. 

Cognac and orange liqueur were blended in France along with other ingredients intended to prevent Malaria on long sea voyages. That didn't work as well as adding lime juice to prevent scurvy, which you see in this cocktail. The cognac and orange flavor of Combier goes so well with citrus juice and even balances it all out with the added sugar in the liqueur, that these kinds of cocktails made their way back from the high seas to take over Parisian cafe scene. 

One thing about the name, though. The cocktail recipe calls for Haitian or Martinique rum, obviously for their French style and origin, which again makes my point about it being very French in style. But why is the drink named after an island in the British Bahamas?

• 1 1/2 oz. Haitian or Martinique rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier (Royal Combier used and recommended)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• lemon peel

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. 

Rum and Sherry

 

I expected this to be a somewhat dry cocktail. It calls for light rum and amontillado  sherry, which is sort of medium dry, or at least that is what this blend of Dona Luisa amontillado says. I'm glad that I used the more rich Plantation 3-Stars blend of Caribbean rums rather than a super dry rum. The effect of the drink, and not all amontillados are this sweet, was like a Manhattan. 

This cocktail is more for a whiskey drinker than a rum drinker. Particularly, I think, scotch lovers will find this one attractive. I'm interested now in doing a bourbon barreled rum and sherry or sweet vermouth to see if I like this very classy way to enjoy nice rum.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 3/4 oz. amontillado sherry (or medium dry sherry. Dona Luisa used)
• maraschino cherry

Combine rum and sherry in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Drop the cherry into the glass.

Magens Bay

 

This is a pretty cocktail named after a beautiful place. Magens Bay is a white sand beach on St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean. Besides being a fittingly rummy cocktail, it is pretty much a classic recipe with orange juice and apricot brandy. You could just about do this cocktail with any spirit and it would taste the same--which isn't a bad idea. 

The thing is that apricot brandy tends to direct the flavor in a sweet and fruity way. Fresh ingredients help make sure that the drink is balanced and interesting. A pure liqueur cocktail with apricot brandy tends to be overly sweet, and that's not the kind of thing you want to drink when you are relaxing in a beach cabana. 

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. lime juice
• sugar syrup to taste (1/2 oz. is appropriately sweet)
• orange slice
• maraschino cherry

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with fruit.

Rumbo

With rum, I sometimes find it hard to decide between a tropical cocktail or something stiff in a rocks glass. Happily, this cocktail falls somewhere between the two. Rich rum and tropical fruit juices split the difference. You get a strong, flavorful cocktail with the Rumbo, but you don't miss out on exotic flavor of guava juice. You also have the option to do it on the rocks or blended, so it really is a rum drink to suit any mood.

• 3 oz. Hatian or Barbados rum (Plantation 3 Stars used)
• 1 oz. Jamaican dark rum (Pusser's British Navy used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 2 oz. guava juice
• several dashes lime juice
• Fruit pieces as garnish (optional)

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker or blender with ice. Shake or blend and pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. 

Banana Rum

 

It stands to reason that banana and rum go together--they taste an awful lot alike in some forms. This cocktail is designed to play that up. Of course there are any number of banana flavored rums available, that's not what we are going for here. It's nice to have something more natural in the glass when you can get it. If you have creme de banane, use it here. I have banana whiskey.

This Murlarkey flavored whiskey comes from soaking natural dried bananas. It pairs well with Plantation 3-Stars, which has its own whiff of banana peel. The drink needs decoration, however. If you have banana leaves or pineapple fronds, feel free to show them off.

• 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. creme de banane (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
• 1/2 oz. orange juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Tom Tom

This tiki cocktail is strong, hence the name coming for the snappy percussion instrument. It beats you over the head with rum and flavor!

Of course you can put this in a Hurricane glass or whatever globe you like--it's frozen, after all. But I think that no one really wants to look at yellow slush and they might rather have some cool statuary to stare at as their vision starts to blur. 

I picked up some of my old favorite rums for this. Here is Plantation 3-Star recipe for the light rum instead of Haitian. I figured that Haiti is represented in the blend, so we are good. For brandy I had to resort to Mandarine Napoleon, which I made from Courvoissier, so it works pretty well. Even better with its tropical fruit and spice, actually. 

• 1 oz. Haitian rum (Plantation 3-Star used)
• 1 oz. coconut rum (homemade used: 1 oz. light rum combined with 1/4 tsp. creme of coconut)
• 1 oz. Brandy (homemade Mandarine Napoleon used)
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion (homemade version used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. orange juice
• orange slice
• mint sprig

Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a Tiki mug or Hurricane glass. Garnish with the orange slice and mint sprig. 

Hop Toad

The Hop Toad is a fun rum cocktail with apricot brandy and lime juice. It's pretty tropical and improved with an interesting rum like Plantation 3 Stars. A little too citric, but worth the experience. This toad is sneaky and makes you dizzy if you take it down too quickly.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
• 1/2 oz. lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Rum Fix

Good rum doesn't need much to fix it. What I had to fix was the fact that I had no gold rum. But since gold rum is just white and dark rum that's blended together. So I went half-and-half with Plantation 3-Stars white rum and Lyon Dark Rum. This was a good choice and one that made a richly sugary and caramel rum drink served long and cold.

Not much lemon juice or sugar is used to balance the drink, so it relies on water and lots of ice to swizzle the three ounces of liquor, chilling and diluting the cocktail. And like a swizzle this is done by stirring. Here's how.

• 2 oz. gold rum
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 oz. water
• maraschino cherry
• lemon slice

Combine rum, lemon juice and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Add rum and stir well until chilled. Garnish with cherry and lemon slice.  

Fair And Warmer

Looking to replace your Manhattan with a more summery drink? Look no farther than the Fair And Warmer. A good and richly flavored white rum like Plantation 3 Stars is aged and can hold its own against most whiskies. It has a strong vanilla and sugar cane notes. Add to that a healthy portion of Carpano Antica Formula vermouth and a few dashes of white curacao and you have a milder tropical version of a Manhattan.

• 2 oz white rum (Plantation 3 Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Antica Formula used)
• several dashes white curacao
• lemon twist

Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist. 

Casa Blanca

"We'll always have Paris." That's what I think about when I make this drink. It's very European, with Luxardo maraschino liqueur and triple sec, but there's this North African flavor of lime and a rich white rum. This drink would do Bogart proud, and a coupe glass makes it look like something that would be served at Rick's American Bar in Paris.

• 2 oz. white rum (Plantation 3 Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Havana Club

Very simple and easily concocted, the Havana Club is one drink that swings between incredibly rich and delicious or pretty insufferable. This has everything to do with the quality of rum and vermouth that you use. A cheap rum and awful vermouth will make the drink taste cheap and awful, because there's nothing else in the cocktail but rum and vermouth. But good quality and flavorful rum and a fine dry vermouth make it as good as any stirred, high-end Martini.

Drinking Plantation 3 Stars is the first time I've tried a white rum that tastes like something other than rubbing alcohol. There's a real sugar cane flavor in it, and an aged oakiness that I really like. The amount of vermouth is small enough that it doesn't affect the balance of the cocktail at all.

• 3 oz. light rum (Plantation 3 Stars)
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth (Mancino used)

Combine rum and vermouth in a mixing glass full of ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

New Orleans Buck

I'm not sure what make's this Buck "New Orleans." Maybe it is the addition of orange juice, since that is the only variation to the Rum Buck recipe: New Orleans drinks tend to be juicier and orange is an American and Southern flavor, for sure.

The recipe calls for light rum. I'm glad I chose Plantation 3 Stars. It has an interesting flavor of its own that stands apart from cheap white rums (that taste like alcohol and burning!) For all of it's 41.7% alcohol, Plantation has a lot of sugar cane character similar to cachaça.

There's no sugar added, so all in all, an easy drink to make.

• 2 oz light rum
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. orange juice
• lime slice
• ginger ale

Combine all ingredients except ginger ale and lime wedge in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with ginger ale and garnish with lime slice.

Acapulco (NY Bartender's Guide version)

Who says you can't use egg whites in a tiki drink. This Acapulco version is a light rum and lime cocktail that demands a tiki mug. The egg makes for a frothy daiquiri mouthfeel.

Plantation 3 Stars rum is a blend of light rums from Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad. It is complex with grassy and sugarcane notes, not just alcoholic fire. By itself, or a little sugar dissolved in the glass, it is delightful for sipping on ice. I could see doing a clear Old Fashioned cocktail with 3 Stars, for sure.

• 2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3 Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• egg white
• mint sprig

Combine all ingredients except mint in a shaker and shake without ice until the egg white is frothy. Add ice and shake again until chilled. Pour into a tiki mug or highball glass almost full of fresh ice. Garnish with mint sprig.